year-over-year but actually better than expected month over month with a gain of .if 3% on the consumer -- .3% on the consumer price index. the dow up 1511, the nasdaq up -- 151. the nasdaq up 89. cheryl reported earlier that walmart is reporting earnings tomorrow, we'll be all over that. and then we'll watch for further earnings to move stocks including tech. nvidia is reporting on a may 22nd, that a week from -- that is a week from today, and it will likely be a market mover for a.i.-related companieses. that'll do it for us for a wednesday. i'll see you again tomorrow right here on the same place, same time. "varney & company" picks it up now. stu, take it away. stuart: i shall. good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. inflation is not going away, but it appears to have moderated ever so slightly. in the last year, consumer prices have gone up 3.4. that is the same rate as rt reported for february. this is not a hot inflation

report. now, we're going to go through all the numbers in a moment, but that headline number, inflation 3.4%, that's going to be factored into the federal reserve's interest rate strategy, all right? if here's the markets' reaction. investors like this. the dow industrials up maybe 150, nasdaq up maybe 80, 90 points. ful the 10-year treasury yield, it's coming down. it's off 7 basis points, all the way back to 4.36. stock market investors really like that. the 2-year treasury yield also on the downside is, 7 basis points, 4.74% right there. bitcoin's going up, $63,7000 at latest count. gold is going up, $2376. it's up $16. oil, not much movement. you're at $77 a barrel, and gas, again, not much movement there, it's at an arrange price of $3.60 for regular if diesel, no change, $3.93. all right, let's get to politics.

biden does it again can. he says inflation was at 9% when he took office. it was not, it was 1.4%. why does the president repeat the error? he seems to be denying reality. he's imposed huge tariffs on a variety of products from china many. that is inflationary. he's put a 100%er tariff on chinese evs. he's protecting the domestic auto industry which just happens to be centered in the electorally important state of michigan. separately, "the wall street journal" reports a $1 billion weapons deal with israel. this seems to be a reversal of the arms embargo. donald trump has been anything but quiet, or silent, i should say. he thinks biden will get out of the race, and he probably won't pick his vice president until the republican convention many in july. one more item, and this is a big deal, biden says he wants to do two face to face tv debates with trump in june and september. on the show today, the left takes a hit at unc-chapel hill.

the trustees have take the telephone over $2 million out of the diversity, bity and includes program if given it to the campus police. dei cut, and the cops get more money. how about that? it's wednesday, may 15th, 2024. or "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ if ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ very superstitious ♪ stuart: a rainy morning here in new york city. superstition by stevie wonderer or opens the show for us. let's get going. ing the inflation numbers, this is a big deal. it had big impact. the number's on your screen, 3.4% inflation over the last year. lauren: let me color it in a little bit. prices still going up,3.4% in april, that is down from march. that's why you're seeing this reaction in the stock and bonds market. the big drivers of inflation, in fact, responsible for over 70%

of it, rent and gas. let's deal with gas first. transportation rising more than 11% in the past year. shelter up 5 a.5%. elsewhere, food prices up more than 2%. ditto for energy, but almost a 7% decline in the price of a used vehicle. at the core level, minus food and energy which are volatile, 3.6%. that's the rate of inflation annually, and that is the lowest in three years. now the thinking on wall street is two rate cuts this year, september, then december. stuart: really? that's the expectations there? lauren, thank you. shah ghailani joins we now. what's your reaction to the 3.4% inflation at the consumer level? >> it's as expected, stuart. i think the market's going to continue to rally are. i we're probably going to go into the second leg of the bull market that started in july. the runway is clear now because inflation, whether it pperks up. -- and i don't think we're done seeing inflation spot higher

herethere -- markets have figured out that the fed will eventually cut rates no matter what inflation if does. i but in the meantime, the economy's handling higher rates beautifully. we still have growth with, economic growth is fabulous. it may be a little bit below trend as of the hot trend last year and a half, two years, but it's cooled down enough to be manageable. nonetheless, or inflation remains high. everything else seems to be going. nothing is broken. we thought banks were going the break, commercial real estate was going to bring down some banks, everything's been managed so far. the longer rates stay elevated and the better the economy's able to handle it, the for markets are going to go higher. that that's what they're seeing and doing. stuart: so the second leg of the bull market is about to start the or has started. summarize it like that. >>? >> yeah. the only thing that could cause a hiccup. in that, stuart, is as i've been saying on your show is that if we see rates creep back up. and that means that maybe the 2-year would get back above 2%, the 01-year would get -- 10-year

would yet back above 4.70. barring that, markets have a clear runway. stuart: we're a long way from that a right now. shah ghailani, thank you very much. that's the financial markets, let's turn to politics. president biden has challenged donald turn to two televised debate withs. one in june, the other in september. roll tape. >> donald trump lost two debates to me in 2020. since then he hasn't shown up for a debate. now he's acting like he wants to debate me again. well,, make my day, pal. i'll even do it twice. let's pick the dates, donald. i hear you're free on wednesday. stuart: trump fired right back. quote with: crooked joe biden is the worst debater i i've ever faced. i'm ready the go. the dates that they are proproposing are fine. anywhere, anytime, anyplace. look who's here in new york with me right now? karl rove. ideally suited to comment on this debate news. what have you got to say? >> first of all, nobody if wants to be seen as the person who

count doesn't want to debate, because that is the person who loses. it looked like donald trump was i want to debate and the white house has been quiet. this is a recognition that he either needs to look like he wants to debate and debate or, or he'd be in trouble. stuart: it depends on what kind of debate it's going to be. two two televised debatesesome. >> yeah, and, look, there are two issues here. one is the commission, which is a pain to deal with, everybody hates the commission, but they do have the value of saying here are the things, here's the rules that we're going to set down. and so the number of things you have to negotiate on are limited. i be it takes a lot of time. -- but it takes a lot of time. sometimes it was like, you know, what's the temperature going to be in the room, and your arguing over should it be 62 or 66, that kind of stuff. stuart: not with this one, because they're going to set their own rules. >> well, but that's going to be even tough or or to do because now they're going to have to do

the whole panoply of things to discuss, and we could get hung up there. the big question is going to be this: commission debates have large audiences because you have to have a venue. first debate this year was going to be at texas state university in san marcus, texas, the chancellor had to go out and raise a bunch of money. now with the debate in june and september, the question is are you going to have a big venue or do it like we did in 19600 where you had a studio, the moderator, a couple of news people to ask questions and a up couple of news executives and the crew, and that was it. i think that, frankly, would be with better for the country because we'd see these two guys without all the drama. you know, it wouldn't be donald trump bringing in bill clinton's girlfriends, all that kind of stuff. stuart: i moving on. white house press secretary karine jean-pierre was grilled about biden's poor poll numbers in swing states. watch this. >> reporter: why do you think americans are so down on president biden right now? >> what do you mean? >> reporter: it doesn't seem like anything you guys are doing is making him more popular.

why do you think that is? >> you're sensitive enough and open-minded enough to understand that this is, that not just this country, but global wily people -- globally people have had to deal with a pandemic. and the president a had a lot to deal with when he walked in if, a lot. a lot of crises. and this is a president that took that the very, very seriously and took action. stuart: karl, what's your opinion? why doesn't anything seem to be working? >> because everything they try is the wrong thing. the economy last year was lose su, is so what do they say? bide mom you cans is working. look, i took a marking class when i was a fresh ifman. i i learned if you've got a terrible product, don't schaap your name on it. people are concerned about dealing with a 19 or 20% increase in prices over the course of this administration and a decline in the median household income, that's a problem. james carville said these people don't know how to deal with people where they're living in the economy.

david axlerod said, you know, i'm worried about biden not being able to ever these with people and what they're going through -- empathize. those are the last two guys who ran winning presidential campaigns for the democrats, and they are on the record saying the messaging of this administration is terrible. stuart: trump thinks that the democrats will eventually pull president biden as the 2024 nominee. watch this. >> i think at some point he goes out. i think so. what do i know? i can only say that here he is, and he was never the sharpest bulb in the room ever. and now he's -- it's so dangerous for our country. you know, we're dealing with putin, we're doing with -- dealing with president, and if i of china, kim jong un, we're dealing with these people that are 100% at the top of their game, and and they didn't can't believe it. stuart: there's the all this speculation that the chicago convention is when they ease biden out and bring somebody else in --

>> first of all, i'm shocked that the president's running for re-election, and i'm or shocked that jill biden and his sister, valley biden owen, have not said go out on top, say you've had a successful four year wees, be the transitional forget you promised the more than people. but the reason he is racing is -- running is he has convinced himself he's the only democrat who can beat trump. so i think the likelihood of him pulling out before the democratic convention or before the november election is slim and none. i will say this is not unusual for president trump. in may of 2020 he believed that if he attacked biden too much, that barack obama would step in and force andrew cuomo on to the ticket with michelle obama as his running mate which was a completely lunatic idea, but with people had convinced him that this was going to happen. and i know this because i was summoned to a meeting to dispel this was anything except a lunatic recommendation. stuart: tales from the campaign trail of yesteryear.

good stuff. karl, i'm afraid you didn't bring your whiteboard with you. >> you know, i had some here at the mother ship, but people have been stealing them -- [laughter] stuart: they're valuable. >> no, they're useful. they're not valuable, but they are expensive, and and i have to buy my own. i don't need a wardrobe budget, i need a white board budget. stuart: see what i can do. karl, thank you for joining us. check futures real fast, please. plenty of green out there. dow's up 150, nasdaq up about 1000 points. here's what's coming up, president biden repeated the false claim that inflation was at 99 when he came -- 9% when he came into office. roll it. >> i think inflation has gone slightly up, it was more than 9% when i came in, and it's now down around 3%. stuart: number two senate republican john thune says inflation is the keyer issue this november. -- key issue. thune is on the show. congressman cory mills defended trump outside the new york city courthouse yesterday. watch this. >> what did we learn here today?

what we've learned is that michael cohen, whos has no credibility, who has perjured himself multiple times, has actually admitted to defrauding the trump organization. stuart: mills calls this election or interference at a its finest. mills is next. ♪ if. ♪ ♪ ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. presentation looks great. thanks! thanks! voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices so you can reach today's financial goals.

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after he's done testifying, trump's lawyers will have the opportunity to bring their own witnesses forward. and we have more on that in a moment. but first, a report on what happened so far in co, hen's testimony. -- cohen's testimony. trump's lawyers focusing on his credibility concerns as well as his animosity towards the former president. can cohen admits that he wants to see trump convicted in this trial and also acknowledged that he relentlessly attacks him on social media, also on his podcast he acknowledged reasoning trump in each of his 200 podcast episodes. cohen admitted to lying before congress and to special prosecutors. he said he received reimbursement payments by sending false monthly invoices and receiving personal checks, sometimes sign id -- signed by trump himself. cohen claimed his loyalty shifted in 2018 when he pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations and tax

evasion. todd man. asked cohen if he's obsessed with trump. cohen responded, quote: i don't know if i would call it obsessed, i admired him tremendously. now he admits to saying things like trump belongs in a cage. but trump can't respond publicly because of the gag order. an appellate court denied trump's challenge of that yesterday which led the former president to say this while leaving the courthouse -- >> you have a constitutional problem without with an ability to say anything about your own case. i am not allowed to talk about big portions of my case. is and nothing hike that's ever happened. >> reporter: so cohen is the prosecution's final witness and, again, i mentioned how trump's lawyer can call their own witnesses after that. right now they plan if on calling an expert if witness to the stand, stuart. but first, at 4:00 tomorrow their going to discuss the parameters of that question with

judge merchan. we'll see what comes of that. back to you. tawrt stuart got it, nate. ing congressman corey mill, republican from florida, joins me now. congressman, you were in the courtroom. did michael cohen do any real damage to trump yesterday? >> no, varney, or i actually don't think he did any damage to trump, but he certainly did to the prosecution. if you think about some of the things that he talked about, one, he a had self-admission, in my opinion, to defrauding the trump organization by knowingly and wrongfully putting invoices that he claimed was not for legal retech. again, that's not on the trump cam pane or the trump camp because what they did was they filed legal retainers under exactly9 what the general ledger or should be, which is under legalities. so when you look at this -- and also, remember what michael cohen said when he talked about his actual case in the south district court in new york. he said that that that was one of the most corrupt and rigged systems down there. now, you can't say that the new york courts in the south district of new york is somehow corrupt and/or a witch hunt and

now all of a sudden trust me, trust me, this one is not knowing that judge merchan's actually daughter is raising hundreds of millions of dollars as a political operative for the reelection of harris and biden as well as adam schiff and others. and then you've got cohen himself who is actually benefiting monotowerly off of his podcast mea culpa where he's selling items that he didn't even want to admit the as well as the two bucks -- books that he's written. it benefits this court case to continue to go on for financial reasoning for both the judge's daughter can and the re-election for biden-harris fund fund raising as well as michael cohen himself. stuart: got it. congressman, "the wall street journal" reports that president biden's moving forward with a billion dollars' worth with of weapons for israel. you introduced articles of impeachment against the president after he withheld the weapons from israel. if we give the aid now, are you still going to impeach him? >> absolutely. and the bottom line is once you've created an unconstitutional, you know,

movement or a violation, why it that you think you can then correct it? look, you can't break into a or person's house, steal their goods and next week go, hey, i'm going to return these, so you can't press charges now. that's not how it works. if you look at his e violations, he was actually committing a quid pro quo with. how did he do so? he looked at the michigan numbers where you had 13.2 of michigan who under rashida tlaib's request voted uncommitted, that's 101,000 votes. he's seeing what's happening with the pro-hamas, pro-palestine sympathizers on college universities, and he's basically saying i'm going to withhold aid, which he knew what it was going to be utilized for, so i can buy votes from those who are not in support of israel. so this is a clear quid e pro quo, not a violation of the take care clause for not enforcing federal border policy and i would also say an abuse of the separation of power with where he's still trying to buy more voteses by doing the tuition

bailout even though they said that's unconstitutional. stuart: we must have a discussion at some point of what is a high crime and misdemeanor involved in this particular impeachment. congressman cory mills, always a pleasure. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you so much, varney. stuart: yes, sir. quick check of futures, please. still plenty of green. dow up 100, nasdaq up 88 after some i'd call it favorable financial and inflation news. we'll be back. ♪ ♪ ameritrade is now part of schwab. bringing you an elevated experience, tailor-made for trader minds. go deeper with thinkorswim:

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stuart: inflation news this morning is this: in the past 12 months, inflation at the consumer level has gone up 3.4 percent. nicole webb is joining us, she is the senior vice president of wealth enhancement group, and she joins me now. what's your reaction straight off the bat to the cpi report? >> yeah. you know, i think it was really in lewin with what we expected for today. the market reacted are very muted yesterday to ppi. i think a lot of thats has to do with the revisions. the retail sales numbers were most interesting to us. it's what we've continued to hope to see, that the consumer

would show a little bit. that's the thing that i believe is going to drive us towards that first rate cut. a consumer that doesn't fall off the cliff, a jobs report that doesn't fall off a cliff, but something that gives us data in support of, okay, the incremental rate increases and the hold have finally slowed the consider. stuart: so this upside move that that we're seeing now will hold many. >> yeah. stuart: it's going to talk us forward on the upside as we go along? >> i do. you know, there's a little bit of a push-pull here. when we think about prices coming down and we think about margins being in such a strong place, you're going to need something to offset the pulldown on margins if you start to see prices come down. i think there's a big bet on that being productivity in the face of a.i. if and what that can do, and the spend on digitization over the last couple of years. so, you know, that's yet to be seep on how quickly we can get there -- seen on how quick quickly we can get there, but we're watching closely for it. stuart: two stocks you like. first of all, amazon. you think it's going to get to

$200 a share? >> i do. we do. look, amazon had a high bar, they delivered on i. what we're seeing that most interesting, first, the acceleration of sales for aws on the heel of what they can offer are from an a.i. standpoint. also there's a lot of stickiness in cloud providers. number two, you know, they did the revamping of how they run distribution in the u.s. for prime members. it's working really well for them. and also there's the high margin ad sales volume that's really ticked up for them across platforms. all of that for us tells a really great story about earnings potential in '25 and '26. stuart: firing on all cylinders. next one is lowe's. what's so good about a lowe's these days? >> people aren't going to move. [laughter] stuart: that helps, momentum it. >> it duds. low supply is great for home builders. on the other hand, you have a lot of people locked into really low mortgage rates, and even if we get these first couple rate cuts, you're not going to see a

dramatic shift back to with it was pre-rate hiking cycle. so people are still going to have an incremental increasedcross to go buy a new home meaning they'll likely continue to revamp their existing home. stuart: you're with the wealth enhancement group. >> yeah, part of the kings view team. stuart: enhance my wealth. >> exactly. [laughter] stuart: is the stock market the best wealth-enanswer answering vehicle? >> i mean, you know i'm going say yes. stuart: it's been a wonderful 12-year run. nicole webb, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. stuart: come back soon. the opening bell will be ringing in mr. speakers my 15 seconds, and -- approximately saw 15 seconds. i'm going to call it a benign inflation report this morning, 3.4% inflation at the consumer level in the past 12 months. that is giving us a modest rally right from the get go. all right. it is now 9:30. the market is open. the dow is open with a gain of about 150 points, not bad in imagine r percentage terms,

we're over a thursday of -- third of 1%. the s&p 500 has just hit an a intraday all-heym high, and and the dow 30 as you can see on the screen, a lot of buyers there. and we now have the s&p new intraday high, up 21 points, 5268. if do we have the nasdaq available? i think we do, yes. that's up over a half percent, solid gain there. all-time high, 16,603. if let's have a look at big tech. i would imagine that their all high -- they're all higher. yeah, they are, except forralson which is down a buck at $1855. apple, microsoft, meta, alphabet on the upside this morning. let's take a look at the meme stocks. they were halted, what was it, 38 times yesterday because of volatility. they're not surging today -- lauren: no. no. and roaring kitty, the icon if you will behind the meme stock rally, has posted several times today, yet you have the meme stocks falling after basically

doubling in price over the past two days. so today they're down. answers the question, do they have staying power. stuart: right. a. lauren: does this rally have staying power? if right now i'd say is, no. i think the reason is this retail crowd has become educated, informed. they're sophisticated. they move if in and out of stocks. so it's not just part of the movement to boost up just amc and gamestop the on no fundamentals, it's to actually trade companies with news like trump media, reddit, sun power. yeah, they're memes, they're highly shorted, but these traders know when it's time to bounce. stuart: there's no staying power because they've got no fundamentals. most of them. lauren: yeah, i'd give you that. stuart: i want to know about google. i know they're expanding their a a.i. technology into the search engine, but can you tell me exactly what that does for me? if. lauren: yes. i have prepared this for you. a.i. overview, it's a summary. so right now you type your search query into the browser, and and you get links. you pick which one you want and

get your afghanistan. concern information. the a.i. will summarize right at the top. so that potentially is problem matteddic for the advertisers, the companies that pay big bucks to fete their ads in-- get their ads inserted in those links. he was less visibility, right? one more for you. a beefed-up gemini chat pot, full conversation with the computer. basically, you open the camera on your phone and you say, you know, i think i left my if glasses somewhere in the studio, and the a.i. looks through the lens of your camera a and say, oh, your glasses are right there next to the door. they must have father-in-law. i mean, that's pretty amazing -- fallen. stuart: the camera can see it and you can't. lauren: well, i think that's the point. stuart: the you've lost your glasses, of course. [laughter] lauren: this is coming one day after openai, major a.i. announcement. so it's the pace of the spending. we added it up, google is spending $48 billion on a.i.

microsoft, $556 billion. and amazon -- 56 billion and amazon, $60 billion. stuart: that's a lot of money. and google, alphabet i should say, is up half a percent, 11711 right now. -- 1711 right now. 3m, i know for a fact if david bahnsen that they have raised their dividend for nearly 50 years, but that has now changed? lauren: we need to get bahnsen on this. they cut their dividend. it's now 70, it was $1.51. they faced multiple lawsuits regarding their products and declining sales. separately, shareholders have voted down executive pay packages including that of their former ceo who is now the executive chairman. so they're holding executives accountable. stuart: and the stock is up. how about that? top the other end, defense stock northrop grumman, they just end increased their dividend -- lauren: and they're down by 10%. they increased it, and that's 2straight quarters of increasing the dividend -- 21 straight

quarters. as part of that reported $1 is billion of ammunition going to israel, $700 million of that will be tank shells, and there are 3 u.s. companies that make them. northrop grumman is one of them. sost making the equipment that the idf uses in their battle tanks. stuart: and the stock is down. i want to know about a tesla. i know they're facing another lawsuit. lauren: every day i have 10 pieces of news to give you on tesla, and i will say i am personally frustrated. the latest is they are sued by an environmental nonif profit for violating the clean air act hundreds of times in the past down of years. the out says tesla's fremont factory emits harmful pollutants mainly through its paint. i think that's ironic, california is suing a green company. but 6000 workers in california -- 600 workers will lose their jobs likely next monthth it's 220 people at a palo alto and 3778 at fremont. -- 378.

they've got 5 asimply lines that build every single tesla model that they sell minus the cyber truck. that's a big deal. elon musk is cutting jobs at the heart of his business. and then do you remember, it was a head-scratcher, he laid off 5090 people on the supercharger team and if he's spending money still for charging stations? reuters went in depth with this, and they say the contractors who pent millions of dollars to build out their networks for those chargers, they're mad. they're really mad at elon musk, ask and he's saying, oh, be patient, you'll eventually get paid. i just don't think that's a way to do business. i do believe in elon miss if, but the past couple of weeks it hasn't been a good look. stuart: it's kept the stock depress. all right. the chinese ev maker, nio, that stock was surging. now it's not. what's going on? lauren: it's also lumped into the meme stocks, and they are down today. we do have two pieces of good news if. jpmorgan whereupon grades them and increases the price target

to 540, and launching today they've announced their new cheaper or brand, it's called on very o, and that's supposed to compete with the model y from teslas -- tesla -- stuart: yeah. but biden's put tariffs on chinese everybody vs including n if io, so they can't come here. check that big with board, please. it's a healthy rally. let's put it leak that. 39,781. you know, 40,000 is in reach, isn't it? let's have a look at dow winners. there are quite a few of them. home depot leads the pack. it's up $9, 2.5%. salesforce, caterpillar, amp general, microsoft is now at 419. s&p winners headed by market -- i don't know that one. s&p, lennar, horton, american tower -- lauren: home builder sentiment comes out today. stuart: that's right. we get that later. nasdaq winners, biogen, intuit,

advanced micro devices is and autodesk. okay, that's how we started out today. here's what's coming up. new york city if mayor eric adams says migrants can fill the lifeguard shortage because they are excellent swimmer. is that a joke? roll tape. >> how do we have a large body of people that are in our city and country that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need life forwards? stuart: excellent swimmers, that's to fascinating. he didn't end there either. we have the full tape for -- he was serious. yes, he was. the white house just tied trump's trial to the election. watch this. >> reporter: was it appropriate for speaker johnson to show up at the trial of the former e president today? >> so, look, i can't speak to -- don't want to comment, obviously, this is related to 2024 elections. stuart: did she make some emission admission if there that this is lawfare? mollie hemingway will get into

it. the cost of food, or energy, childcare, they're all rising. we're going to break down down the surge in prices since biden has been in office. that that's next. ♪ so take, take me home 'cuz i don't remember. ♪ take, take me home ♪

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at t. rowe price, we're asking smart questions about opportunities like clean water. and how clean water advances can help transform our tomorrows. better questions. better outcomes. t. rowe price stuart: on your screens, the latest inflation if news. consumer pices up 3.4% in the last 12 monthses. that news broke about one hour ago. brian brenberg's with me this morning. which sectors of the economy show the biggest price increases? >> let me tell you this, first, don't pay attention to expectations. pay attention to the real number. stuart: right. >> let's look at the real

number. let's start with -- [laughter] shelter and gas, 70% of the monthly increase last month. there's your shelter cost, almost 21 %. go to household energy. this is how you heat and power the home, that's almost 30. these numbers are from if january 2021 to today. all right, now let's say you want to leaf the home, stuart -- leave the home. talk about gasoline. 50, almost 52% up since biden took office. and here's the problem, okay? it's not just powering your car, watches when your car breaks down or you've got to insure it? take a look at these numbers. bring our insurance numbers up, there it is. 52% is the increase on vehicle insurance and, of course, that those guys are doing is helping you out he hen the car breaks down. when you've got to bring it to the shop, stuart, take a look at that number, almost 411%. now, you're in -- 41%. you're in your car because you

want some food, food away from home, 22% prices up to eat out. what's the point here? if compounding inflation. month after month, year after year gives you those numbers. that's what people feel. so when they say 3.4% for this month, what people are saying is, yeah, but tell me what that's like when you add a it all up. stuart: we're living with that rate -- >> every single month. lauren and it's getting worse. i was about -- i'm going to do a story later that new rules on home construction, making them more green, will add $30,000 to the price of a home. >> yeah. so a take your shelter -- lauren: it's already expensive, and you have the add to the price. >> that's right. nothing feels better to the consumer. nothing feels better. stuart: brian brenberg, thank you very much, indeed. come back soon. peter morici's with us now. inflation 3.4% at the consumer level, what does that say about the state of the economy? >> well, it's consistent with consumer expectationses. you know, according to the

michigan survey consumers say about 3.5% going forward. fed chairman powell if says expectations are anchored. for a long time, i've said they've been anchored but not at 2. the trade-off between inflation and slower growth is not as benign as he thought. if we looked at retail sales which came out today, they were very, very tame. consumers are pulling in their horns. the problem is in order to get to 2%, he's not going to get by with taking the economy down to 1 growth or half a percent growth. he's going to have to take a hit in terms of unemployment. that probably means the conversation should be shifting. as problematic as this may be in an election year, when do we lower interest rates to are we going to have to raise them further. if you look at how high inflation went relative to how much he raised are interest rates and compare that to the volcker experience, he very much undershot what volcker did.

volcker went up much more than the rate of inflation at the time. powell tried to get away with doing less, and now the he's paying for it. inflation expectations have hardened, and he's having trouble breaking them. stuart: one more for you. this is are from fed chair jerome powell. he says the influx of migrants is helping alleviate the labor shortage. they're working. roll tape. >> i would also point to a fairly large influx of immigration into the country over the past couple of years, and those people are joining the labor force. they're -- we're experiencing still a labor shortage in many industries. and so there are jobs, and they're going to wok work and they're consuming. so that's also boosting, boosting growth. so overall, a good picture. stuart: now, it was almost bound to happen, wasn't it? millions and millions of people flood into the country. they're not supposed to work, but there's a labor shortage, so

they do work. this is going to be happening a lot, isn't it? >> well, yeah. we're adding jobs at about last year we added jobs about twice or three times the pace that the the indigenous population and legal immigration could handle. now, they are helping in places like construction because a lot of central americans bring building trade skills. but we're having problems in other areas. for example, a lot of our workers in semiconductor factories are getting to the age of retirement. a lot of our auto mechanics and so forth. these are not jobs that immigrants fill very easily. but the labor supply is only half the immigration picture. new york city's got an an apartment vacancy rate of less than 11.5%. that's -- 1.5%. that's lower than a snake's belly are, as they say in the south. they're now looking for -- it's exacerbating what is a terrible apartment shorage. shortage. we can't get around the fact that we haven't been building

housing for an expanding indigenous population. now you add a couple million immigrants? magically, if i could print $100,000 bills and happened them around, wr-8d they spend them? stuart: that's a good point. >> the answer is, they can't. they have to put houseboats in the hudson. stuart: peter or morici e, interesting stuff. thanks for joining us. >> take care. stuart: we have an update on those migrants who were arrested for attacking police officers in times square. this was earlier this year. lauren i can't forget that deal. stuart: are hay being offered a plea deal? lauren: yes. sick of the seven are. you're looking at the video. seven migrants gave cops that beatdown back in january with. one of them was rearrested on friday because he allegedly stole from macy's harold square, and five of the seven not only offered a plea deal, but offered one that would have them serve a year or less in jail in exchange to pleading guilty for crimes including second-degree assault. none of the defendants have

accepted any plea deal thus far. the case could go to trial. but two of these seven allegedly members of that venezuelan gang, so, look, they're thugs. they're act aing like thugs. they beat up our cops, and two of them got plea deals of decision months or less. stuart: lauren, thanks very much, indeed. coming up, the university of north carolina-chapel hill will take $2.3 million out of its dei program. that money goes straight to the campus police. let's hope this is a trend. surely, our colleges are getting tired of the intellectual straitjacket known as dei. that's my take, top of the hour. some companies are trying to fill the labor shortage by luring new workers with affordable housing. kelly saberi speaks to a company building it own housing development. that is next. ♪ ♪ ♪ -- grab your things, i've come to take you home ♪

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decided to take matters into their own hands. kelly saberi is in bay springs, mississippi, and joins me now. is this company building housing for its own workers? >> reporter: it is. they've had to get creative in order to get talented people to move down to the pine belt. take a listen. [background sounds] jamie holder's dad opened his business in bay springs, mississippi, in 1963. they develop a varian -- variety of specialty vehicles under multiple plants. holder has dealt with the punches of supply chain issues and the increased cost of raw materials. his newest issue, housing. do you think your dad would have ever imagined that his company would dabble in residential construction? >> i want to have really a showcase place so that when people come here, they can say this would be a nice place to live. glert it requires educateed, well-trained and specialized

talent, and that means looking farwide for people who can do -- far and wide for people who can do the job. >> it's a big deal when you change jobs, you know? it's a stressful thing, and we just need 'em to be comfortable. >> reporter: but new employees simply e cannot relocate to the small town with the lack of available homes. holder decided to buy a 30-acre not of land with plans to build homes for employees to purchase. the close e cities are anywhere between -- closest cities are anywhere between 50-70 miles away, at least a 1-hour commute to bay springs. >> they're just not going to spend an hour of their day driving because they want to spend it at home or out on the property. >> reporter: a prospective worker turned down an employment offer thanks to higher mortgage rates. >> if they moved for an increase,, they may still not have more money in their pocket when it's all over with. is that's, that that's a big issue right now. >> reporter: and because of

the slowdown in home construction, we are seeing fewer fork if lifts like this machinery being built. back to you. stuart: kelly, we hear you are, thank you very much, indeed. there will be, i promise, more "varney" after this. so, what are you thinking? i'm thinking... .. safari? hot air balloon ride? swim with elephants? wait, can we afford a safari? great question. like everything, it takes a little planning. or, put the money towards a down-payment... ...on a ranch ...in montana ...with horses let's take a look at those scenarios. j.p. morgan wealth management has advisors in chase branches and tools, like wealth plan to keep you on track. when you're planning for it all... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management. (ella) fashion moves fast. (jen) so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network.

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